1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for setting photographic informations in a camera.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, as the application of electronics to cameras has progressed, a camera having an increased number of exposure modes such as shutter speed priority AE, aperture priority AE and programmed AEs and also an increased number of light metering modes such as a spot-metering mode and an average-metering mode has been proposed and is available in the market. For setting a desired value of the shutter speed or aperture in the selected one of the exposure modes and the value of sensitivity of the used film, if the camera was provided with respective individual operating members such as the shutter dial, film speed dial, and so on, it would have been very difficult to handle such a camera.
So, the mode selector switch was made to cooperate with a preset value input switch for correcting the initial value of an exposure factor, thereby all the desired values of the different exposure factors could be preset by the common operating member for the correction switch. It has also been proposed to use a common liquid crystal display of increased size for indicating what exposure mode has been selected and what values have been preset over all exposure factors.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the prior known operating member for the above-described correction switch wherein it has the form of two push buttons, or UP botton 104 and DOWN button 106 positioned on the same side of the finder housing as that above the film take-up spool chamber. For selecting a desired one of the exposure modes, the operator needs first to depress an exposure mode selection control button 100 above the film cartridge chamber by his left hand's index finger, and then, while depressing it, to depress either one of the UP and DOWN buttons 104 and 106 by his right hand's index finger until the desired mode appears in the display 110. Then, to alter the initial value of shutter speed or aperture in the shutter speed priority or aperture priority exposure mode respectively, the operator needs, while removing the left index finder from the botton 100, to depress either one of the UP and DOWN buttons 104 and 106 until a desired value appears in the display 110. If the operator does this setting while holding the camera, his right hand index finger touching the button 104, 106 will unavoidably shuts out his eyes from looking at the display 110. Besides this, because of that finger is floating, the right hand becomes unable to grasp the camera steadily enough So, the left hand has to play main role in holding the camera. For note, to preset the value of film speed, a botton 102 is depressed along with either of the buttons 104 and 106.
Another example of the prior known operating member is shown in FIG. 2, using rotary dials 206 and 210 for setting the film sensitivity and shutter speed respectively with the help of display panels 204 and 208. While a shutter botton 200 is depressed to the first stroke and maintained there, when these dials are turned to UP side, the preset values increase, and when to DOWN side, they decrease. And, to do this while holding the camera, the operator needs to use the ball of the thumb of his right hand to rub the knurled periphery of the dial 206 or 210 while keeping its index finger to maintain the release button 200 at the first stroke, until the expected value appears in the display 204 or 208. Though, in the camera of FIG. 2, the displays 204 and 208 are not shut off, not only the index finger but also the thumb must be taken out of holding the camera when the setting is carried out. Since the steady holding of the camera is insured by the thumb abutting against the back of the camera as opposed to the pressure of the other fingers except the index one on the grip 202, the use of the thumb in operating the dials 206 and 210 gives rise to a problem of extremely lowering the steadiness of holding the camera.
For note, the structure using a rotary dial as the aforesaid digital correction switch is proposed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 58-211902 (U.S. Pat. Ser. No. 669,591 assigned to the assignee of the present invention). In this proposal, as the digital correction switch, there is provided a rotatable setting dial, and it is revealed that an UP correction output and a DOWN correction output can be operated by the direction of rotation of this dial. Because this dial is, however, is positioned farther than the release button away from the right hand holding the camera, when to alter the preset value, it is necessary to displace the right hand more or less from the fit position. Similarly to the first two examples of the prior art, the right hand can no longer steadily grasp the camera, and the left hand has to help holding it.